1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety buckle of umbrella runner, and in particular to a safety operation technique of umbrella that is applicable to all sorts of umbrellas to ensure secured and reliable positioning of a runner in the expansion of the umbrella.
2. The Related Arts
Umbrellas that serve as sunshades and rainshades are generally categorized in two types, of which one is a portable device, such as a folding umbrella, and the other is a fixed device, such as a large-sized umbrella, including a beach parasol and an advertisement umbrella. Both the portable umbrella and the fixed umbrella are of similar operation by moving a runner along a center post to allow the runner to push up and thus open a canopy or by moving the runner downward to collapse the canopy and thus close the umbrella. Further, when the umbrella is opened, the runner that is moved upward along the center post must be kept at a predetermined location on the center post to maintain the canopy in the opened condition.
One of the most common way that can be observed in the conventional umbrellas to fix the runner at the fixed position along the center post that maintain the umbrella in the open condition is to provide a resiliency-operating stop element on the center post. When the runner is moved upward along the center post to reach a position above the stop element, the stop element is allowed to project outward to stop downward movement of the runner in the reversed direction so as to keep the runner in position. A major disadvantage of such an arrangement is that a number of parts must be mounted inside an interior hollow space of the center post, making the structure complicated, and malfunctioning may be easily caused by an unexpected or undesired external impact, leading to spontaneous and unconstrained downward movement of the runner, which causes safety problem and makes the operation of umbrella unreliable.